Say hello...

to our new home!
They accepted our offer this afternoon.... I'm a ball of anxiety right now- excited, but sad and nervous too. We're leaving my first real home, the longest I've lived anywhere in my life, and where I brought my babes home. But, this house is really pretty, and the lot is over 12k square feet, on a fabulous cul-de-sac lot where we'll have plenty of room for the kiddos to play. And plenty of room for the pool next summer! :) We close on our house and this one on the same day- the 19th- gotta get to packing!!

Happy 10 month birthday Megan!

Every month I say what a busy month it's been, and every month it just seems to get busier!

This month you got to experience your first (of many) boo-boos- you fell on the end table while trying to pull up on the couch. And that, or something similar, is how every consecutive boo-boo has been made.
You got to have your second overnight visit at Gramma's this month and did fabulous, of course. Who wouldn't getting spoiled with such finesse?
This month also marked many a birthday party- Dylan's first birthday, your cousin Jack's 3rd, Hayden's 4th, Jeremy's 30th, and Lauren's 1st. And yes, we made it to all the parties- Party Girl!
You started standing on your own at the beginning of the month, and you can practically run along an object, but you'd still rather speed along crawling than try to walk yet.
Cameron went to VBS this month, and I volunteered for two days of it. For one of the days you spent the afternoon with Gramma, but the other one I had to put you in the church nursery which was quite disastrous. You got kicked out. :( You were happy as could be as soon as you were back on my hip, though.
You got to have some play time with a few of your own little friends this month- I kept Hannah for a few hours one afternoon while the kiddos were at VBS and Heather was volunteering. You two had great fun just chasing each other around the house in crawl mode. Sabrina and Shaun came over one night with Madison too, and you two had some fun together. And you usually get to spend some time with Dylan at least a few times a month. Sometimes I feel like your getting the shaft, as we're always just toting you along to Cameron's activities and such, but you don't seem to mind. Most of our friends have babies your age anyways, so you have some built in friends of your own.
You finally broke teeth this month- two at the same time! You also ate cat food for the first time, went under the water at the pool for the first time, started waving and saying 'Hi', and you also pooped on the floor for the first time. Good times for all!
Your favorite activity of all seems to be destroying your brother's Thomas table. You love to make a beeline for it every chance you get. It always reminds me of King Kong destroying a city.
Your dad got to have his first Father's Day with you around this month too! Boy, have you got him wrapped around that pinky!
We also had two road trips back to back- a trip to the river for 4 days, and a trip to Fort Worth for the weekend. You did fabulous for both, and slept great away from home. The river was spent much of the time in a diaper, as you love to eat dirt and crawl into anything you can.
You seem to enjoy your voice a lot these days- "Mama" "Dada" "Buba""Hi" and "Nana" are staples of the vocabulary, but there's many a time when just hollaring as loud as you can is just as fun for you, especially when you have your big brother egging you on.
You're sleeping from about 7:30-6:30 these days, with two naps during the day. We're down to nursing 3x/day, and you still eat more than any child I know of, including your brother. It's insane how much you eat, and yet you never chub out. For your sake, I hope you keep that fabulous metabolism!
Here's to another month Miss Megs! Two more exciting ones until you turn ONE! This next one will mark you and your brother's first MOVE!

Love Always, Mama

this is as close as it gets...

to a family picture these days...

Just a couple of pictures from our Father's Day dinner last Monday night... I have added our river trip pictures to Flickr, and have mucho updating from the last week to do on here, plus Megan's birthday post AND

WE HAVE SOLD OUR HOUSE. HALLE-FREAKIN-LUYA!! We close July 20th, and I'm not going to tell you how much I'm freaking out that I have to pack up this house before then with two very helpful children in the midst, and find a house..... wish us luck! :P

Rascal Flatts

Went to see them last night. It's definitely one of the best concerts I've ever been to. They are great performers. We had some crazy rain before the concert, and since it was at
the Mitchell Pavillion we were a muddy mess. Note to self: flip flops are not a good idea in mud. But still worth it, even if I had mud up to my knees by the time we left. :)

Sooo... Cameron says she looks like a coconut, Brent says she looks like a pineapple, and I think she looks like a little orangutan... what do you think she looks like?

Busy week coming up...

Happy Father's Day to all the daddies (not that any daddies read this, other than my hubs, but hey, thought I'd acknowledge it :)) I gave Brent his album this morning that I finished just in the nick of time.... he seemed to really love it. He said you don't realize how important you are until someone does something like that and puts it all down on paper all about you. :)

We'll be gone all this week coming up- tomorrow I'm going to be running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get us all packed- the kids and I are going with 4 of my girlfriends and their children to the Gaudalupe River for three days (that would be 10 children going) and we're coming home Thursday night/Friday morning, only for us to turn around and leave for Fort Worth with Brent on Friday afternoon for a birthday party for the weekend. Yay!

Can we say laundry when Monday rolls around?

Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

Noah's Ark

"Cameron, we're going to the Noah's Ark water park tomorrow. Do you remember about the ark?"

"Yeah! That's the one that Noah and his friends built."

"That's right. And what did he build it for?"

"To go for a boat ride when it rained."

"And who did he take with him?"

"All the animals"

"How many animals?"

"I think about 15 Mommy"

"Close. He took two of each animal... 2 pigs... 2 cows (the conversation goes on and on of every kind of animal I could think of) and even 2 of every bug"

"Noooo Mommy no bugs! Bugs are not animals!"

"But they are God's creatures too Cam. He took two of them also"

"So did he take two Spiderman and two Batman too?"

A picture as promised...

Megan with her two little teeth... and a mosquito bite.... yes, she's a big mouth like her mama bless her little heart...

and stop the presses... the box must have had magical powers, because my SIL called us to come and go swimming with them. dum de dum dum duuuummmmm we shall see how that goes, but I'm glad Cameron will have a chance to hang out with his cousins.

Some favs of summer so far:
1.swimming- we've gone almost every day somewhere. How can you not in the heat? Outside=water activity ... Rita, when's that pool of yours going to be done? ;)

2. Crayola Window Markers are so cool...good times for both of us

3. 101 cookie cutters... Cameron seems to enjoy cutting almost everything into some kind of shape. It must make the food taste better or something

4. the Mud Pie- they have a great story time and the kids paint a piece of pottery that reflects the story- Cameron loves it!

5. Hide n Seek- my daughter's new favorite game, which has caused a revival in my son to play... constantly.... good times for all!

6. Sonic Diet Cokes- oh wait, that's all year. But they get so much better in summer. Megan loves the ice right now.

Ahh... summer time!

CKU Houston!

Woo hoo!! We're in! Whew! Fast and furious, just like the storm that hit us last night!

I'm all registered, and I got all the classes I wanted, and so did the rest of the girls. yay!

Yesterday we had a crazy storm come through- a neighbor a few doors down had a tree go through their house, and my IL's had a tree go down in their backyard, luckily it went through two yards taking out fences, but their neighbor wasn't so lucky and had a tree take out their car and part of their house. We had no power from 4 yesterday until about 5 this morning. Making for an insane couple of days with very little sleep. Brent was flying in from Atlanta, and got grounded at Lake Charles for four hours. I finally went and got him from the airport at 9 last night. Fun times... only to come home to a muggy house... with a nice big cozy king size bed... with a teething baby, scared 3 year old, chicken dog, lazy cat, and grumpy husband to be included with it.

But hey, I got into CKU! Yay! Priorities!

12 on the 12th...

I meant to do this last month, and totally forgot, but I ended up with 16 on the 12th... had trouble narrowing them down... besides, it made a square that way! :P
The pictures are not in order, and I'm not advanced enough in PS yet to figure out how to number the pictures (sad, I know, but it's late and I don't feel like figuring it out either) but there's sixteen pictures, and I'll go left to right-

1. Cam's swim lessons this morning. We have two more mornings left of them.

2. Maggie-Pie- while we were playing frisbee this afternoon.

3. Went swimming this afternoon after lunch- Miss Meg eating the lotion.

4. Great mail day- new DT kit from Scrappin' Deals, CK & SB Etc.

5. Ugh- mucho ironing to do.

6. Lunch on the go- Cam picked the place- not that he had to twist my arm. ;)

7. Karate class this afternoon.

8. These things have saved me lately with my poor little babe cutting 4 teeth.

9. self-explanatory- there should probably be about 5 of the same picture of my computer on here.

10. Cam & I having some fun with his new window markers. It's our new favorite toy. :)

11. Monday is always new list day- things to do this week, groceries, etc.

12. Miss Megs with crazy hair right after her bath.

13. Cam hamming it up with his bedtime story he picked out.

14. Wrinkle release on the dryer- enough time for me to feed Megan and put her down before I have to come back and get the load out!

15. Can't forget to water the flowers- these days they can't go a day without it.

16. bath time for the kiddos was early tonight- sunscreen, bug spray from the park means mucho cleaning of children....

and I'm leaving out a picture of my chocolate and wine I'm enjoying right now :) In case you're wondering, my husband still exists, but he's in Atlanta on business right now. And that's it! Left out a few errands- gas, car wash, etc. but the gist of the day is there. I think I'm definitely going to keep this up- neat way to do a layout on it, and to look back on the ordinary....

Peek A Boo...

I see you! Megan's new favorite game is to play Peek A Boo/ Hide n Seek- crawl like crazy away and around a corner, and then peek back to see if she's being chased and giggle like crazy. And she officially has broken ground on the teeth- I haven't gotten a great picture of the toofers, but I will. And she said Mama for the first time yesterday. Growing by leaps and bounds I tell ya!

lessons....

All last week I had thought about it. We live about 3 minutes from Brent's brother and his family, and see them only on neccessary family events- holidays, birthdays, etc. NOT because I want it that way.... another day. Anyways, I went over it again and again, and always came up with NO I wasn't making anything. But Tuesday I said something to Cameron about Jack's birthday party and his face lit up- he loves Jack so much, which makes me so sad that he hardly ever gets to see him.
I decided right there that I was making something, and if not for Jack, for my son. What kind of example am I setting with my actions? Not that he would have known if I hadn't made it, but if the cycle continues, he will know. So I made that box, and showed it to Cameron and told him I would take him to the store and he could fill it up with whatever he wanted to give Jack. A slinky, fake lizard, silly putty and some magic towels (those ones that are tiny, then expand in water) later (it cracks me up what three year olds think are the coolest), I had the happiest son that was so excited to give this box to Jack. And I cried. I realized how much I had lost sight of what mattered and what was important, and I am so glad I have these children in my life to remind me of what is. It really doesn't matter what is returned, but to feel good and proud of the things you do and the decisions you make at the end of the day, that is what matters. What your children learn from you is what matters.

Cam's Self Portrait

Cameron took a picture of himself today with his Gramma's camera after he got off the go cart- cracks me up!

What a whirlwind of a weekend...

Hubs was out of town for the weekend, so Friday night I scrapped (yay!) and Saturday was Dylan's Birthday Party which was so fun and amusing :P... the kiddos are always fun to get together, and Maggie even got to come to the party too since we were heading out of town after the party to stay at my friend's house out in the sticks (is it near you Jaime? :P). Good times, sitting out in the country and drinking a few while watching the sun go down...

This afternoon I had lunch with my brother and got to meet his new 32 year old girlfriend. She's very nice, and I like her a lot. She has a 12 year old daughter. Oh, and did I mention it's my 18 year old brother? The family bush has struck again...

Totally Busted

Cruising down the freeway the other day....

C: Mommy, why do you want all the cars behind us?

Me: What? What do you mean?

C: You keep making all these cars go behind us with your driving. Why do you want them all behind us?

Me: Hmm.... I don't have a good reason. (Other than the fact that yes, I am indeed a fast driver. Guilty.)

Happy Birthday Dylan!

Or Dill Pickle, as I love to call you... :) I know it's a little early, but since his party is tomorrow, thought I'd be the first to say it. Cameron and I made this for Dylan (we already gave it to him today, so I'm not spoiling the surprise) this week. This is the chipboard book from Laura in the swap (Thanks Laura! (if you read this)) and we had a blast making it. Cameron loved searching for all the stuff in the magazines and helping to cut it all out (by the way, it's really hard to find purple and pink stuff in mags, in case you're wondering). I know it's not really practical, since he can't exactly chew on it, but it's the thought that counts, right?? :P

Megan loves chipboard too!

While I was "working" today, Megan had absolutely no interest in any of the toys surrounding her, and instead was very determined to pull all the baggies of chipboard out of the container I had put them in....it's okay for babies to eat chipboard, right? :P



***No babies were harmed in the making of these pictures***